Norton Save & Restore 2.0 Backup Software Review

Backing up your files and folders by dragging and dropping them onto an external hard drive is a less-than-ideal safety plan. For starters, it just backs up your files, not your entire system. Worse, you have to actually remember to do it. Norton Save & Restore 2.0 takes most of the pain out of setting up a backup plan by automating much of the process.

Save & Restore 2.0 breaks down into two toolsets: backup and recovery. Upon installation, a wizard steps you through setting up your initial backup routine. In fact, the only decision you have to make is where you want to back up your data, and Save & Restore will tell you your options. Internal hard drives, as well as USB and FireWire external drives are supported, as are optical drives and (for those of you with a wayback machine) Iomega Zip and Jaz drives. The software can back up your entire drive, or just one file or folder. One option missing, though, is the ability to back up files to an offsite, online storage service.

Once you've set up your first backup plan, you can create additional backup plans, do one-time backups, view the status of backups, manage storage destinations, and recover your computer or files. You can create an exact image of the entire PC as well, and do it without leaving the OS or rebooting. The redesigned interface is easy to follow—at least at the start. It's broken into four tabs: Home, Status, Tasks, and Tools.

The Home screen gives you your status, a pie chart of the destination drive's free and used storage, and some quick links to tasks. The other three tabs are for creation, management, and recovery operations. We like the refreshed look, but it still uses a few too many grids and option boxes that might confuse some users, and the language used needs to be a bit simpler.

One thing worth mentioning is the search feature. If you've ever opted for the drag-and-drop method of backing up, you probably know just how long it can take to find a specific file. Save & Restore's enhanced browsing features let you find exactly what you're looking for in no time flat. Another nice touch: With a simple slider, users can throttle back how much of a computer's resources are used to do a backup. That way, you're not tempted to skip one that's scheduled just because you're busy working.

Overall, we found little not to like about Save & Restore, but the $49.99 price seems about $20 too high. What's worse: Symantec knocks only $10 off the price for those upgrading from version 1.0. Aside from these minor gripes, Symantec has done an excellent job of creating a backup app suitable for a broad audience.